Like metulburr, I am trying to make a change in my life; if not one as momentous as quitting smoking. I'm trying to get up on time. I tend to lie in bed for an hour or more after my alarm goes off. This exacerbates my chronic depression both directly and indirectly. To help me get up on time I am going to use a commitment device: every day I get up on time I will give $15 to a charity I like, and every day I don't get up on time I will give $15 to a charity I can't stand.

For the first month, the charity I like is DC Central Kitchen. This is a kitchen in Washington DC that gives food to the homeless. They then use their kitchen to train homeless people to be chefs so they can get a job, and run a catering business to give homeless people work experience. I'm not sure why, but I have a soft spot in my heart for homeless charities, and DC Central Kitchen is the best one I've ever heard of.

The charity I can't stand will be the 700 Club, the television show run by Jerry Falwell. Falwell's opposition to civil rights, gay rights, and any religion that isn't his are messages I cannot condone, and certainly don't want to help spread.

It may seem odd to mention all this on a programming forum, but I have to mention it in public somewhere for it to really have meaning to me. So I'm mentioning it here and at work.

I am no stranger to sleep disorder and depression myself, and can sympathize. Best of luck with making this change, ichabod801! You might find this article interesting. It is a bit long (and they keep pushing their speed learning software) but it is the best explanation of how sleep works, what can go wrong, and how to get back on track that I found online (and I've looked).

I know there is a clock that has 4 puzzle pieces on top.When the alarm goes off, the pieces shoot up into the air, and the clock will not go off till the pieces are back in.This may work assuming you don't:1. unplug it2. smash it3. go to another room4. ignore it

Ah well, my $0.02 USD.

Python 2.7Python 3.3Windows 7 x64Ubuntu 12.10 x64One day I hope to use one OS and 1 Python flavor, until that day, life goes on.

So far so good. The tally is DC Central Kitchen $135, 700 Club $0. I even got up on time on Saturday and Sunday (I set the alarm an hour later each day, but that still meant getting up at 7:00 both days last weekend. I'm normally lucky if I can get up by 9:00 on the weekends).

I was looking up Jerry Falwell because my original thought was Liberty University, and I saw Jerry's bit on the 700 Club about how gays (and the pro-choicers and the feminists) caused 9/11. That's how I associated him with it. But your right about it being Pat Robertson's show, not Jerry Falwell's.

One of my co-workers said I should have used Westboro Baptist Church, and they are a truly more evil target. But I plan on switching the donors every month, so they can be the evil side later.